Earlier today I was pursing that fantastic thing called the “Internet” and found there was quite a bit of talk about Public Domain in regards to old games. Naturally, I went to investigate what all the hub-bub and found an article, posted earlier today by RockPaperShotgun.com, which made some (albeit personal) remarks about older games and how they should be free. In it, John Walker says,

“I don’t love that the price for those games so often finds itself near the $10 mark. As someone who desperately pines for the PD model that drove creativity before the copyright industry malevolently took over the planet, it saddens my heart that a game two decades old isn’t released into the world.”

This upset me. Quite a bit actually. Before I go off I want to say a few things…

I know this issue is a lot more complicating than I’m letting on and I’m open to suggestions and different points of view.

I know, especially recently, Copyright laws have been used to bully other developers.

I am specifically referring to paying for commercial products.

My thoughts

Games should not be free unless a developer wishes for said game to be free (with maybe the exception of death + [insert years here]). I know there are a lot of gamers on the Internet who think otherwise. It seems that if it’s not free within a couple of years it’s not right. But I 100% support developers and retailers receiving money from old games as long as there is a demand for them.

Do I know all the rules about Copyright laws and royalties? No, I don’t. So take what I say with a grain of salt. To me, if I made a product 20 years ago and somebody wants it, you bet your ass that I’m going to charge you for it. Why? Because I (and possibly a group of people) put time and money into creating this product. I may have spent a little over two years of my life creating this one single product; and while two years isn’t that long of a time in terms of a decade, it’s enough for the product to be special to me. To feel like it is worth being paid for.

Later, Walker said, “Even ignoring the chances that anyone involved in the development of a game made in 1989 is seeing a penny of it, it engenders this belief that for creative products there should be some inalienable right to keep making money on some work you did decades ago, like a plumber demanding a fee every time you use the tap he installed in 1992. Yuck, stop it.”

Excuse me? Did you go through the work to create a digital copy of the game you love so much? Do you still have to use a floppy disk, a CD drive, or is it presented to you in a clear and more accessible way? Who do you think put in the work to make an old game more accessible on a modern computer? The retailer did. Programmers did. The provider in which you expect to manage, present and catalog the old games that you love so much that you think should be free.

If you can do that yourself, than do it! Because in a free trade society, when you expect someone else to do a service then you should expect to pay them. Even if you think that service is small and insignificant. If you don’t want to pay, then don’t. If you support public domain and you’re so upset at GoG for charging, then why at the end do you say, “...this is a chance to pick up a bunch of games for not much money – games that likely wouldn’t see the likes of a Steam sale. I mean, heck, when was the last time you heard someone mention Crusader: No Remorse?” That tells me that you don’t have conviction in your beliefs. Speak with your wallet. It’s really that simple.

And the plumber analogy was awful. You pay him/her for one service for one time. When you get a new, digitized version of an old game; you pay for two services. It’s not like you’re paying every time you put the game in.

Today Game Director Matt Firor has announced that the Elder Scrolls Online will release worldwide on April 4th, 2014!

It is coming...

In the post he said, “We long ago promised that as soon as a version of the game is ready, we will launch it. So we’re happy to announce that the game will launch worldwide for PC and Mac players on Friday, April 4, 2014, while PlayStation 4 and Xbox One fans will see the game arriving on consoles in June 2014.”

They also released a new trailer for the Elder Scrolls Online, and it looks very exciting.

I can honestly say that I have never played a game like Gone Home. This little gem by Fullbright Company was incredible in so many ways. While I don’t know if I could strictly call Gone Home a full-fledged game, it is an incredible first-person interactive story that touches on the more mature gamers. Gone Home explores the roots, the progression and the changes in a family that encapsulates the idea of going back home.

You can't go home twice

Story

The story in Gone Home is not an original one in any stretch of the imagination; it is a very contemporary issue that is important to tell. In this review I will be avoiding spoilers, however I will say that the central story revolves around the playable character’s sister, Sam. Gone Home is a very real and personal story. When I started playing, all I knew about the story was its 1:15am, you come home and find the house empty. The story kept me on my feet and engaged at all times. What I had originally thought was the main direction of the story was completely wrong. The great thing Gone Home does is keeps you guessing and discovering. Never have I felt so rewarded for exploring rooms I didn’t have to explore. The adventure from the parent’s room, to the kitchen, to Sam’s room engages the player into the story that not many other games have done before.

While interacting with the Greenbriar home, I began to relate to going back home after a period of time at college. It explores how you can never really go back home because things change; for better or worse. I have personally felt that while I may physically return home, emotionally I am either behind or just on a different plane. Gone Home is for the older gamer. While I think younger gamers (16-18 Year olds) could enjoy it, to gain a personal and emotionally connection (that I think is what Fullbright was going for) you need a moment of time where you have been independent and have “gone home.”

While the game does have a main story; each family member has some kind of subplot. Through the interaction of audio recordings, letters, books, and journals the story becomes clearer and stronger; also leads to personal interpretation.

Gameplay

Make sure you read everything

Considering Gone Home is less of a game and more of an interactive story; there is not much to go on. Gameplay in Gone Home is a point and observe adventure game. There is no violence. There is no combat. But that is not a bad thing! In fact, for Gone Home, the game would feel odd and misplaced with anything other than what is presented. The simple maneuvers of the character allow for a more engaging interaction with the objects.

Presentation

The Greenbriar home is very real. Never have I felt a game has so easily captured reality. The home feels like a family home. The bedrooms (especially that of Sam’s) is easily identifiable. By that I mean the rooms and the characters are parallel to each other. They complement each other. The Greenbriar home feels like a whole character as itself. It is the
mechanism for telling the incredible story and responsible for setting the mood. The soundtrack both helps set the mood of a time during the mid-90’s and evoking emotional responses from the player.

The..Uh... Not So Good Parts

Gone Home Game is great, but there are a few faults. First, the $20 price tag for a game that lasts roughly 3 ½ hours seems a bit much. While you can take more and less time to explore, I would feel more comfortable if Gone Home was in the $5-$10 range. I did run into a few minor bugs during my play through. Nothing major just simple lag and object issues; hardly enough to really affect my experience.

Verdict

With all that in mind, Gone Home is an incredible experience. The story is contemporary and engaging, the Greenbriar home is realistic and the soundtrack is amazing. While I felt it was too big of a price tag for what­­­­­ I was getting; Gone Home took some risks and it paid off big time.

8.7 out of 10

GamerInTheMountains is a long-time fan of gaming and humanity. You can follow him here on IGN and listen to his insane ramblings on his Twitter @InfamousMavrick.

For the past three years I have been lucky enough to attend PAX Prime. Being a fellow Seattleite; it has always been easy for me to go. While I was not able to attend all four days, thanks to my college classes starting during the queue, I did able to scrounge 3 tickets. Also, big middle finger to the scalpers for buying in bulk. Being a rather insane enthusiast of video games and loving to write about them; I thought I’d share my impressions of a few things I saw there.

Game on

TitanFall

Never has giant mechs been so fun!

There are many games that get a lot of hype and then fall short of our expectations. Some examples include Assassin’s Creed 3, Dragon Age 2, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, I can confidently say that TitanFall lives up to the hype. Of course I only played a small demo, but the action was fluid, the gun mechanics felt believable and the Titans were ungodly fun to be in. I like shooters, but after a few weeks I tend to stop playing and move on to something else. TitanFall is a game I can see myself playing months and months after it releases on the Xbox One. The amount of destruction and tactical movements you can have with your Titan makes this game uniquely fun. I haven’t been this excited over a game since Mass Effect 2. If you have a computer that can run it, that’s great, however I would suggest you get an Xbox One when it comes out. This game is a system seller.

Wolf Among Us

I’ve played The Walking Dead and I loved it. It was engaging, emotional and suspenseful. It was a combination of great storytelling in gaming and appropriate gameplay. Wolf Among Us is in the same boat. The short story I played involved you playing the Sherriff (for the life of me I can’t remember his name) of FableTown. Investigating a disturbance at a hotel you have to break up a domestic-esc fight and you can do that in a couple ways. I chose to go all out by tackling the jerk guy out of the window crashing on a car on the street. While this probably wasn’t the smartest option, I was able to live out what it would be like to be the Big Bad Wolf. Wolf Among Us is an exciting new story-driven game by TellTale and I can’t wait until I can buy it.

Beyond Two Souls

It feels and plays a lot like Heavy Rain and I don’t mean that as a bad thing. The demo was surprisingly long and covered how the game switches between Jodie and Aiden. It is fun. Jodie plays a lot like any main character in Heavy Rain while Aiden feels like an entire new thing. As Aiden you can go through walls, listen in to other people’s conversations, warn Jodie of any trouble and possess enemies. In the demo, Jodie was in trouble and so, as Aiden, I was able to possess a nearby sniper and kill a few of the police officers that were pursuing her. This game seems like it will really build on the relationship between Jodie and Aiden. Proof that this generation still has exciting games coming out.

Knack

Fun, but not most anticipated

Knack was fun. It didn’t feel ground-breaking nor did it feel like anything new, but it was entertaining. It gave me a chance to play with the PlayStation 4 controller and, as a big hater of the PS3 controller, it was a vast improvement. I couldn’t explain why exactly it felt better, but it did and it made me buying a PS4 a for sure thing. While Knack didn’t seem like anything truly special compared to the other games I played; it was fun.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Wow! I, like most people, found Dragon Age 2 disappointing. While it didn’t ruin the series for me (as it seems like it did for others) I was a bit heartbroken by it. Bioware seems to understand that and Dragon Age: Inquisition looks crazy good. At the Bioware panel on Saturday they showed off a gorgeous live demo of parts in DA:I. They showed how choice and consequence will be more subtle than just choosing bad vs. good. In DA:I you can walk pass a town being destroyed. Without any real indication you can make a choice to fight and save that town or leave it to continue on whatever mission you have. In the demo, they left the town to its fate. They went back, after they finished their mission, and were met with charred bodies and broken houses. They described how your reputation and potential resources will be affected by small instances such as these. The UI was clearly that of someone playing on an Xbox. While DA: O and DA2 on consoles were awful, it truly looks like they fixed major issues in DA:I. There is a new tactical view on the console version that works much in the same way as it did on the PC. Graphic-wise DA:I is a VAST improvement from its predecessors. The Frostbite3 Engine makes the DA world beautiful and the particle effects for mage spells had me jumping for joy. DA:I is my most anticipated game for the coming generation.

Tell me what games your excited most and why!

GamerInTheMountains is a long-time fan of gaming and humanity. You can follow him here on IGN and listen to his insane ramblings on his Twitter @InfamousMavrick.

People who don’t belong to gaming culture often ask me why I have such a passion for my chosen hobby. My first response is to say it is fun; which is true. But it goes beyondjust entertainment value. It connects with me on a deep level.

I was born in a family of nerds and I use that word as a compliment. My father was the reason I was able to get my hands on video games. Starting with a Sega Genesis, I learned how to love pixels and animations. Then came the N64, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox,
Xbox360, Playstation 3; plus many handhelds and my PC. Gaming grew as I did. Now this does not mean that I didn’t do anything else: I read books daily, reading 5-7 books every year; I was a Boy Scout, camping and running outside constantly. Looking back it is amazing I had time to do everything that I did. But gaming always came first if I had the choice.

Gaming is associated with a few flash memories. I remember playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time over and over again. I remember my frustration as my friend and I tried to get past the damn Water Temple. I remember playing Age of Empires 2 and conquering my enemies. The first time I literally could not sleep because I wanted to play KOTOR still. I remember the first time I saw the title screen of Mass Effect; not realizing how that game series would help me in the times ahead. I remember nights of playing WoW and the relationships I built with people in that community; I still miss talking to them. These flashes are only some of the many wonderful memories that are associated with gaming.

I love story and adventure. I think part of a reason I love gaming so much is because I loved camping and adventuring as a Boy Scout. I
want to explore nature and visit areas of the world that few people have explored. I want to see new cultures and see what other people believe. However, because I don’t have the means to actually do that in real life; gaming gives me a substitute. I can explore new areas and meet new “people” in other games. Whether it is NPC characters who are telling me about their elfish heritage or real people online telling me about New Zealand, I am able to learn different things and explore the unknown.

Gaming has allowed me to keep in touch with people who live far from me. Through XboxLive, I have been able to keep in touch with friends who have gone to different universities. Through Steam, I have been able to keep in touch with my brother. I can keep in touch with people through activities. My girlfriend and I met before we went to college. The last 6 or so months have been by doing long-distance. While it is very hard to be away from the person you love physically; we have been able to still bond and go on “SWTOR
dates.” It helps us forget about the troubles of long-distance while we strike down our enemies with our badass lightsabers.

Gaming has also gotten me through a lot of bad moments in my life. It may not be extremely healthy, but I am able to relive stress over work, school or home through games. I can take a couple of hours and just forget about what the world is doing to me and just enjoy my time through my hobby. Obviously I won’t go through too much personal detail, but I remember playing SWTOR during one of the worst parts in my life. While it did not “get me through” that point; it helped give me a sanctuary.

I’m not even sure if all of this accurately describes why I love gaming so much. Even writing what should be my conclusion I still want to
add in my memories of going to PAX. Gaming is such a huge and important part of my life that I can’t imagine what I would be like without it. It has shaped my past and determined what I want to do with my life for the future. I love games. I love the culture and I will always defend it. My name is Cameron and I identify myself as a gamer.